Viewed less as a movie than as a cultural phenomenon, one of the most refreshing aspects of Brokeback Mountain is the matter-of-factness with which it tells its gay love story, as this revolutionary work treats its protagonists’ romance with the same dignity and consideration that has accompanied heterosexual screen romances since the dawn of cinema.

Last June, the Davenport City Council approved a $48-million development agreement with the Isle of Capri to build an 11-story casino hotel with a five-story adjacent parking ramp on downtown Davenport’s riverfront, after less than a month of formal review that included the public.

Reported cases of sexual trafficking in the United States are horrifying and, unfortunately, not uncommon. In recent years, our federal courts have heard cases involving a group of Thai women – promised good-paying restaurant jobs – forced into prostitution upon their arrival in New York; a group of Mexican teenagers – told they would be working as waitresses and child- and elder-care workers – held in sexual slavery in Florida and the Carolinas; a syndicate of smugglers and pimps who brought hundreds of Asian women (some as young as 13) into the United States, forcing them to work as prostitutes – and making them live in bondage – until their “contracts” were paid off.

Editor’s note: The Isle of Capri’s application with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for its riverfront-hotel and casino-relocation project has triggered a public-comment period that ends on Thursday, December 22.

In a large room of a warehouse, countless cardboard boxes sit on the floor and along the walls, overflowing with televisions, computer monitors, wire, and various computer components. An adjoining room has bales of compressed pieces of plastic stacked three and four bundles high that look as if they’re ready for the junkyard.